1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the control of network information server systems supporting World Wide Web based data pages and, in particular, to a server system and process for a content producer controlled dynamic modification of hyperlinks for purposes of restricting content distributors from unauthorized hyperlinking to the content producer""s website.
2. Description of Related Art
xe2x80x9cHyperlinkingxe2x80x9d in documents allows a user to highlight an object, thereby linking the object to another document. Documents may be coded in a standard Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format. These documents are typically used in a world-wide computer network called the Internet. A user can utilize a web browser to retrieve an HTML document from a remote server and display it on a computer display. Typically, the display contains text and graphics, although it is also possible to play sound and motion picture. These documents embed hyperlinks to other HTML documents. The user can click on a link in a predetermined location of the document, and an HTML document associated with that link will be retrieved from the same or another server.
Due to the completely distributed client/server architecture of the Web, as made possible by the Uniform Resource Locator (xe2x80x9cURLxe2x80x9d) system further supported by the existing Internet name resolution services and routing conventions, HTTP servers can be independently established with little difficulty. The number of HTTP servers and the number of Web pages in them have been expanding rapidly in recent years. Because of the time, cost, and complexity of assembling comprehensive, yet efficiently searchable databases of web information and resources, commercial Internet Business Services (IBS) have been established to provide search engine services to allow easy access to the numerous HTTP servers and Web pages currently in existence, and also to provide a categorization of the various types of information available on the Web. Examples of an IBS include Yahoo!, Lycos, Excite, etc. While categorizing information available on the Web into distinct topics or groups of topics, IBS Web pages typically contain hyperlinks to the Web servers and pages owned and operated by others. Because the IBS is essentially an aggregator of information produced by independent content producers on the Web, Internet Business Services are referred to as content distributors. Clients on the World Wide Web often access an IBS and follow hyperlinks to other Web sites.
Access to search engines is usually provided through server local web pages served by the IBS and is typically fee based or supported by advertising revenue. The results of a search are served in the form of local web pages with appropriate embedded remote or hyperlinked URLs dynamically constructed by the server of the IBS. The hyperlinked URLs in most cases refer to Web pages of content producers on the topic of the search.
An example of content aggregation is illustrated by the case where the content distributor Yahoo! creates a web page which has hyperlinks to several news articles on a recent earthquake. One of the hyperlinks references an article on the New York Times website. New York Times is primarily a content producer as it generally has articles written by its own reporters. If no control is provided to New York Times over access to its website, then Yahoo! may freely include the hyperlink to the New York Times article on earthquakes. Users of the web are more likely to go to the Yahoo! website to find news articles because a number of articles are conveniently referenced in one location, unlike the New York Times website which may only have one article. Thus, the creator of a website runs the risk that others will create Web pages with hyperlinks to the website regardless of the desires of the website creator. Internet content distributors such as Yahoo!, Lycos, Excite, etc. currently depend on extensive categorization and associated hyperlinking to millions of Web pages located all over the world. Internet content distributors generally do not create any substantial website themselves, but rather glean their business from distributing the content of websites produced by others. Many content producers, like Web newspapers and magazines, are interested in making a profit on the website(s) that they have created. However, this is impossible to do if everyone freely has access to the content producer""s website.
One method that has been developed to restrict access to a content producer""s website is the use of a user password log-on in order to access the website. Thus, even though content distributors like Yahoo! may have hyperlinks to the website, the client that tries to access the website through the Yahoo! hyperlink must also have a log-on or user password in order to access the website. The problem with this solution is that the content producer""s website cannot be accessed seamlessly through the pages that were downloaded from the content distributor""s website. Thus, the value of the content producer to the content distributor is diminished. Furthermore, many users of the Internet dislike user password type log-on systems because of the time required and the hassle involved.
Another solution to this problem is a method that relies on creating copies of the original content producer""s web pages on the content distributor""s website and referencing these copied pages using modified hyperlinks in the content distributor""s web pages. Although it is easy to actively modify the hyperlinks while delivering content to the Web client, there are several disadvantages to this method.
The first disadvantage is the problem of keeping the two copies of the same web page in synchronization with each other. In other words, when the content producer changes a page on the website of the content producer, the copy that remains on the content distributor""s website is different than the original page. The second disadvantage of this method is that the content producer may not be willing to provide copies of the website to others. Therefore, a content distributor would be unable to get the client access to the content producer""s website. The third disadvantage of this method is that it is not practical for content distributors like Yahoo! or Excite that have links to millions of pages on the Internet because the method requires too much space on the content distributor""s website. A fourth disadvantage of using this method is that, by providing copies to the content distributor, anyone is allowed to hyperlink to the pages of the copies of the content distributor, and thus the purpose of allowing selective hyperlinking in the first place is defeated.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a system which enables content producers to pick and choose which content distributors are allowed to hyperlink to the content producer""s website. The system should allow a client to seamlessly access the content producer""s website via the content distributor. Furthermore, it should not require that the content distributor make copies of the content producer""s web pages on the website. The system should also allow the content producer to determine the content distributor that lead a client to the content producer""s site and should provide content producers with an efficient way to negotiate payment or other terms from content distributors before the privilege of hyperlinking is allowed.
In related art, Kirsch (U.S. Pat. No. 5,870,546) discloses a system and method of reliably tracking and redirecting hyperlink references to content producer servers. The invention disclosed by Kirsch allows commercial Internet Business Services (IBS) to decide whether a client should access a content producer server or not. However, the invention does not allow the content producer server to have control over access to the website of the IBS. Hence, the content producer is not in control of restricting hyperlinks to itself under its own schedule and discretion.
The present invention enables content producers to selectively choose which content distributors may hyperlink to the content producer""s website. Once an agreement is provided to allow the content distributor to hyperlink to a content producer""s website, the content producer provides an initial URL to the content distributor. The content distributor creates an HTML file that contains the initial hyperlink URL that was given to the content distributor. The content distributor in turn allows the content producer the privilege of updating the HTML file that is made by the content distributor. In a typical scenario, an Internet client establishes a communication link to the website of the content distributor. A user at the Internet client then downloads an HTML file and sees the hyperlink to the initial URL that is provided by the content distributor. After the user at the Internet client clicks on the hyperlink to the initial URL, the content producer delivers the document pointed to by the initial URL to the Internet client. The content producer generates a new hyperlink to the same document that was initially referenced and then modifies the HTML file on the content distributor""s website replacing the initial URL with a new URL. In this manner, the content producer may determine which content distributor the client requested through and therefore which content distributor HTML file should be updated.